Alexander Technique with Ada Hajaj

A record is playing in my head from the moment of awakening to the nightly shut-off.

What kind of ‘music’ am I listening to? What am I saying to myself and what am I saying to others? Byron Katie comes to mind, with her ‘stories’ and questioning process.

Lets say I have a job interview coming up. What am I telling myself? ” I will do my best”, “This is my best shot at stepping up the life ladder”, ” If I prepare really well/ look my best/ don’t make any mistakes/ don’t blank out and loose confidence/ slow down/ not tense up” – “then with some deserved/iundeserved luck I will grow in the world’s/my own eyes”

Now the question: is it true? A moment of deep breath, then: ” If it is not true, then here is another record we prepared for you”: “You are a failure and anyone can see it. No need to go through the whole effort business because you are no good. Or at least everyone is much better/younger/funner/lighter”.

Now is THIS true? Confusion. Peace of mind. Breathing.

“I am fine as I am. I don’t really need this job/promotion/fill in the blancs. I am healthy and I have food in the fridge. My children grew up to be nice people. Life is good. I am good. I can contribute a lot to this ailing and desperate company/business/hiring manager. It would be a sacrifice of my time and effort, but for the right sum of money I am willing(or not?) to consider it. Deep breath, happy smile.

The interview. The person across from me is pretending being light casual and carefree. They are testing you, but only to their own level of understanding. Can you stay true to yourself under pressure?

Why is it so hard to stop holding/bracing/stabilizing one area of our body and instead let it coordinate with with rest harmoniously and fluidly?

Since early childhood we were taught/trained by people who in our best interest made us feel like we have to do a special effort in order to perform something well. Every skill was achieved through a familiar learning process: First we try and fail according to the adult next to us, then the adult would show us how and we are rushed to achieve the desired result at any cost, mental and physical. Try, try again. Try harder. Rarely were we allowed to arrive to the skill by having intention, understanding and patience.

Fast forward, here we are, trying to stop the automatic holding. It feels impossible. Our brain says, let it be free, but we hear – DO something else instead of holding. Yes, but what? We panic. How can we DO and we don’t know what? How? What does it FEEL like? We will fail for sure, collapse, fall over. Be criticized for the failure probably, it scares us deeply, reflexively.
It made me smile when I realized. Stopping the holding/bracing isn’t an action. It isn’t similar to pressing the brakes when we drive. Instead it is like gracefully walking out of a crowded room into a beautiful garden.

Back, shoulder, neck pain or discomfort can be helped!

Alexander Technique has been proven to significantly reduce back pain occurrence with long term retention. Come in for a FREE personal introduction with a hands-on experience of the Alexander work. Schedule your appointment by email info@alexanderbayarea.com or text (650)6464470

I read an article recently, suggesting ‘letting go’ as one of the steps of Alexander Technique work. So much internal weight we carry associated with this expression. ‘Let go’ when our child frustrates us to infinity, ‘Let go’ when someone just hurt our feelings and we want to fight back. Would letting go really mean ‘Give in’? ‘Give up’? ‘You’re powerless against an obstacle’?

So I thought, what if –

Lets Let..Go! Imagine yourself leap up instead of shutting off your system in submission. Take a second to pause and decide where is up and which part of you should go in that direction. Then decide which part of you will go in the opposite direction, down. Are these two directions going to happen in a particular order or all at once? Then thrust up mentally with full intent and don’t second guess yourself. Fall up, go!

This year we will be part of Movement Pavilions  – tents that will house exercise instructors teaching various classes of Parkinson’s specific movements. We will be offering short hands on demonstrations both to persons with Parkinson Disease and their care partners.